Adding frames to both ends of a movie

[baloney mahoney]

Does DVD Shrink have the ability to add some frames to the beginning and also the ending of a movie? I see where I can trim off frames from both ends but not where I can add frames.

If this cannot be done using DVD Shrink what other application would be recommended?

[Abond]

1. No
2. It cannot be done with 1 (one) application.

[manono]

Hi-

If this cannot be done using DVD Shrink what other application would be recommended?

AviSynth, using the Loop command, and maybe others, can add frames to the beginning or end. If you're willing to reencode.

Or you can create a new short video of all black frames and then append it during authoring (if for DVD). Also fairly easy with AviSynth.

I'm not really sure what you're up to, so you might explain in more detail. Perhaps you want to extend the video so that the audio completes?

[baloney mahoney]

Basically, it's very simple what I am up to.

Adding a frame or frames, whatever the case may be, to the beginning of the movie is nothing more than say I want to have an extra lead-in picture or black screen prior to the movie starting. Some of my DVD movies that I have made copies of off of TV start immediately and I would like to have a picture of my choice (it could be nothing more than a black screen or a picture of something that I created) that would show for a few seconds before the actual movie starts.

As for adding a frame or frames at the end is similar to doing the same thing that I want to do at the beginning. On some of my TV novies that I copied off of TV I stopped the recorder exactly at the end of the movie. Here I would like to have a few seconds of a black screen or a picture of my choise just to give it a more professional look.

[manono]

Okay, makes sense. If you want to create a black video for inserting at the beginning or the end of your videos, then:

BlankClip(length=120, width=720, height=480, fps=29.97, color=$000000)

encoded using your favorite MPEG-2 encoder will create a 120 frame (4 second), 720x480 resolution, 29.97fps, black, blank video. You can insert it when you author, either at the beginning or at the end. You can do the same thing with some kind of logo or video you create for the same purpose. Adjust the parameters as you see fit and test the script you plan on using in VDub(Mod) before sending it to your encoder. Also, if you author these things along with the main video, either add some audio to them, or delay the audio for the main video by the length of the intro.

http://www.avisynth.org/BlankClip

Another choice (and maybe a better one) would be to make these black or logo type video clips intro or outro video clips for the main video. One way to do that would be to open the completed but intro/outro-less DVD in PGCEdit and then go Title->Import Title's Intro (or Closing) Clip and follow the easy directions from there. You'll have to author them using something simple, like Muxman, as PGCEdit is looking for little DVDs to add before or after the main video DVD.

[baloney mahoney]

Well thanks anyway but all that you describe above is beyond my scope at this time - too many programs to deal with.

I thought perhaps a single program could do this. I think Nero can do what I want but Nero is also very unstable and crashes all the time so I have not been able to say for sure it can or cannot.

I also think that Adobe Premiere Elements has this capability but I dont have the proper CPU to run it so that's out of the question for the present time.

What I am looking for, if there is such a program other than the two I mentioned, is one that has a GUI which allows you to import your movie (from a disk file) and bring it into a time-line and then at the beginning and ending of the time-line you can just insert additional picture clips or some kind of already made video (like an .AVI file or something like that) and then just have the program write the entire thing back out to a disk file.

The though of adding video to the start and end of an already authored video seems like a very simple task given the right program but maybe it's more complex than that.

[Keitho]

I use Ulead Videostudio 9, and it easily does this. You drag your video file into the timeline, then if you want a black screen, insert the color black from the color menu, and enter how many seconds you want it to display. In your case, you would insert the black screen at the beginning and end of the video. You can use a crossfade transition effect to fade from black to your video and back again, etc.

[manono]

The though of adding video to the start and end of an already authored video seems like a very simple task given the right program but maybe it's more complex than that.

Nope, real easy. PGCEdit even has little instructions and explanations to walk you through a very simple process. Just open up any old DVD in it, highlight the movie in the left screen, and then up at the top, go Title->Import Title's Intro Clip and see what it says.

You'll probably have a tougher time creating the black clip and authoring it. Creating it just involves installing AviSynth and loading that earlier script into any encoder (I use CCE), and then muxing afterwards (I use Muxman).

By the way, after installing AviSynth, if you've never done this before, create an .avs and call it something like BlackVideo.avs. That is, create a .txt file, and then change the extension to .avs. Inside that .avs stick the line:

BlankClip(length=120, width=720, height=480, fps=29.97, color=$000000)

perhaps modified to be longer or shorter, or to have a different color, up to you. Most MPEG-2 encoders can encode from that just as they would an AVI or another MPEG-2.

[baloney mahoney]

I downloaded that Ulead Visualstudio but I don't see how it can be used - it doesn't seem to recognize my DVD video files (ie, it does not have .VOB as any file format to use as video clips). So, I'm lost on this one.

I got Nero to do what I wanted but I don't understand it's output. It allowed me to read in VOB files and drag them to the time-line and I was able to add a small .AVI video clip at the start of the time-line. When I previewed the movie while in the Nero application it plays correctly but when I have finished writing the entire movie back out to a disk file on the Hard Drive it is all .MPG files (not .VOB as I would have expected) and the sequence is all messed up.

I loaded the files into Nero's VisionExpress time-line in the following order:

BlackScreen.AVI
VTS_01_1.VOB
VTS_01_2.VOB
VTS_01_3.VOB

I would think that the numerical order of the .VOB files would be the proper sequence for the movie but after it was written out to a disk folder it did not play back in the normal sequence, it started out OK, showing the 10-second black screen then going right into the movie but the actual ending was in the middle of the movie and the movie actually ended as though it was in the middle of the movie. Also it took 3 hours to compose it.

[Keitho]

In Videostudio, choose "Import from DVD/DVD-R".

[baloney mahoney]

OK, I did exactly that. I clicked on a folder where the VOB files are and Videostudio loaded them into a dialog box. All I am able to do with them is to play them on that little screen on the right side of the dialog box. That doesn't do me any good cause I can't get them into to time-line where I need them.

[baloney mahoney]

OK, I clicked that little check box next to the title which did some more importing (????) and I saw where it added the file to the time-line but how do you save it as DVD (VOB) files? I can save it as a project (.VSP) but I don't see where you save it as VOB files.